As the White House on Monday backed off in a legal dispute with CNN over the press credentials of White House correspondent Jim Acosta, the White House announced new rules of behavior for reporters, which could result in the suspension of a reporter’s press pass for asking more than one question of the President or top administration officials. “We have created these rules with a degree of regret,” said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who directly blamed Acosta for the change, after the CNN reporter locked horns with President Trump in a post-election news conference earlier this month, refusing to give up the microphone while trying to get answers from the President about immigration policy. Here are the new rules as set out by the White House, which were contained in an email sent on Monday afternoon through the White House Pool: Sent: Monday, November 19, 2018 4:06 PM Subject: In-Town Pool Report #3- Acosta/CNN Letter From Press Secretary Sarah Sanders: This afternoon we have notified Jim Acosta and CNN that his hard pass has been restored. We have also notified him of certain rules that will govern White House press conferences going forward. They are listed here: A journalist called upon to ask a question will ask a single question and then will yield the floor to other journalists; At the discretion of the President or other White House official taking questions, a follow-up question or questions may be permitted; and where a follow up has been allowed and asked, the questioner will then yield the floor; “Yielding the floor” includes, when applicable, physically surrendering the microphone to White House staff for use by the next questioner; Failure to abide by any of rules (1)-(3) may result in suspension or revocation of the journalist’s hard pass. We have created these rules with a degree of regret. For years, members of the White House press corps have attended countless press events with the President and other officials without engaging in the behavior Mr. Acosta displayed at the November 7, 2018 press conference. We would have greatly preferred to continue hosting White House press conferences in reliance on a set of understood professional norms, and we believe the overwhelming majority of journalists covering the White House share that preference. But, given the position taken by CNN, we now feel obligated to replace previously shared practices with explicit rules. We are mindful that a more elaborate and comprehensive set of rules might need to be devised, including, for example, for journalist conduct in the open (non-press room) areas inside and outside the White House and for Air Force One. At this time however, we have decided not to frame such rules in the hope that professional journalistic norms will suffice to regulate conduct in those places. If unprofessional behavior occurs in those settings, or if a court should decide that explicit rules are required to regulate conduct there, we will be forced to reconsider this decision. The White House’s interaction with the press is, and generally should be, subject to a natural give-and-take. President Trump believes strongly in the First Amendment, and a free press and is the most accessible President in modern history. It would be a great loss for all if, instead of relying on the professionalism of White House journalists, we were compelled to devise a lengthy and detailed code of conduct for White House events.

The recent turbulence in the U.S. stock markets is spooking some older workers and retirees, a group that was hit particularly hard during the most recent financial crisis. There’s no indication, though, that the recent volatility has brought about large-scale overhauls in retirement planning. “There’s a lot of fear that if you have another event like 2008 and you retire the year before or the year after, you’re screwed. I’m not taking that risk,” says Mark Patterson, a recently retired patent attorney from Nashville, Tennessee. “There’s a huge fear of folks my age that they’re going to run out of money and they’re going to need to rely on the government for help.” By the time the market bottomed out during the financial crisis in 2009, an estimated $2.7 trillion had been wiped out of Americans’ retirement accounts, according to the Urban Institute. Older Americans, in particular, have had a tough time recovering their losses. The Pew Research Center estimates the net worth of the median Baby Boomer household in 2016 was still nearly 18 percent shy of where it sat in 2007.

Even the best of cooks can end up missing an ingredient on Thanksgiving morning. If you find yourself short on nutmeg or minus a few potatoes, there is a good chance a grocery store near you will be open on Thanksgiving for at least for part of the day. Here is a list of Thanksgiving Day openings, closings and store hours for national grocery store chains. Reminder: Some stores do not follow national opening/closing hours. Some state laws prohibit stores being open on a holiday. Be sure to check with your local stores for times. ALDI: All stores are closed on Thanksgiving. AJ's Fine Foods: Open 6 a.m. - 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Albertsons: Open from 6 a.m.-5 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Bashas': Open until 3 p.m. on Thanksgiving. BJ's Wholesale Club: BJ’s is closed Thanksgiving. Costco: All stores will be closed on Thanksgiving. Food Lion: Most stores will be open until 3 p.m. (depending on the store). Fresh Market: Open until 3 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Ingles: Open regular hours on Thanksgiving. Kroger: Stores are open regular hours on Thanksgiving. Publix: All stores and pharmacies will be closed on Thanksgiving; regular hours resume on Friday. Safeway: Most stores will be open from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. Sam's Club: All stores are closed on Thanksgiving. Sprouts Farmers Market: Open 7 a.m. - 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Target: Stores open at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving and close at 1 a.m. Friday. Trader Joes: All stores closed on Thanksgiving. Walmart: Stores will be open on Thanksgiving. Wegmans: Most Wegmans locations will close at 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Whole Foods: Hours: 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on Thanksgiving.

After a post-election vote fight that showcased vote counting troubles in two south Florida counties, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) conceded defeat to Gov. Rick Scott (R) on Sunday, ensuring Republican gains in the Senate in the 2018 mid-term elections, and delivering a welcome piece of good post-election news for President Donald Trump and the GOP. “I just spoke with Senator Bill Nelson, who graciously conceded, and I thanked him for his years of public service,” said Scott in a statement. “My focus will not be on looking backward, but on doing exactly what I ran on,” Scott said. “Making Washington Work.” Florida elections officials on Sunday announced a final advantage for Scott of 10,033 votes – that was down from just under 15,000 in favor of Scott when the machine recount began, and lower than the nearly 12,500 edge for the GOP before the hand recount started on Friday. For Republicans, the hard fought win gives them a gain of two seats in the Senate for 2019, as the GOP will have a 53-47 edge, provided they can also win a special runoff election for Senate in Mississippi after Thanksgiving. The Scott victory was a rare piece of good news for Republicans since Election Day, as the GOP has lost a number of close House races in recent days. Democrats have now gained 37 seats in the House, with five GOP seats still undecided amid continued vote counting. Nelson becomes the fifth U.S. Senator to lose in November, joining three other Democrats – McCaskill in Missouri, Heitkamp in North Dakota, and Donnelly in Indiana – along with one Republican Senator, Heller in Nevada. While 5 Senators were tossed out by the voters in November, 27 House members – all Republicans – have been defeated. Several more could still lose in the five remaining House contests which are undecided. Hanging over the defeat for Nelson is what appears to have been a ballot design problem in one small part of Broward County, Florida, where thousands of voters did not cast a vote in the U.S. Senate race, which happened at a much higher rate than other areas in that county. The Florida Senate count is at Scott+10,033, right around the margin where the Broward County undervote/bad ballot design could have been decisive. We may never know https://t.co/Gg14C1heaV — Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) November 18, 2018 The ‘undervote’ problems in that area of Broward County were just part of a slew of post-election issues highlighted by the wrangling over the final tally in both the Florida Senate and Florida Governor’s race.

Jamie Dupree – KRMG

Month: July 2017

As Senators returned to work on Capitol Hill for the first time since last week’s defeat of a bare bones GOP bill to overhaul the Obama health law, there was no indication of an immediate attempt by Republicans to rush a new proposal forward for a vote, as party leaders and rank and file GOP lawmakers started talking more about a major push on tax reform later this year.

“I’m now moving on to tax,” said Sen. David Perdue (R-GA), who like other Republicans expressed frustration with last week’s defeat on health care, but said that until one of three GOP [More]

The staff changes and upheaval continued at the White House on Monday, as White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci was pushed out of his post after less than two weeks on the job, and just hours after President Donald Trump welcomed his new Chief of Staff, former Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

Scaramucci, who had been brought into the White House just two Fridays ago, on July 21, had been grabbing the headlines repeatedly in that time, most notably with a profanity-laced interview with the New Yorker magazine, as the hedge fund financier evidently fell from grace in no time.

President Trump turned up the heat on Republican Senators this weekend, using Twitter to voice his frustration and displeasure at the failure of the GOP to get a bill through the Senate that overhauls the Obama health law, but at this point there is no obvious magic formula to solve what Republicans have called a “Rubik’s Cube” on health care reform.

Here’s the latest from Capitol Hill on the health care debate:

1. No path forward on health care at this point. The U.S. Senate was supposed to be gone from Washington, D.C. this week, but while the House has left until [More]

President Trump on Saturday repeatedly used Twitter to urge Republicans in the Senate to keep trying to reach agreement on a bill to change the Obama health law, threatening to unilaterally end payments the federal government makes to insurance companies that help pay for subsidized health insurance coverage for low income Americans under Obamacare.

“Unless the Republican Senators are total quitters, Repeal & Replace is not dead!” Mr. Trump wrote on Saturday afternoon. “Demand another vote before voting on any other bill!”

Shutting off the subsidy payments, known as “CSR” or cost-sharing reduction, is one of many administrative options open to the [More]

President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda in Congress is in a familiar spot as the Congress gets ready for a summer break, as a major bill to overhaul the Obama health law remains in limbo, and GOP lawmakers are still behind schedule on a variety of budget and spending measures, which will further delay Congressional action on tax reform legislation backed by the White House as well.

Here is the latest on the Trump agenda from Capitol Hill:

1. Health care remains in Congressional limbo. After the stunning setback early Friday morning on the floor of the U.S. Senate, GOP efforts to [More]

For a second straight Friday, there was major job news from the White House, as President Donald Trump used Twitter to announce that his Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was on his way out, to be replaced by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, in another internal shakeup at the White House.

“I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country,” the President wrote on Twitter. “We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him!”

But it had been obvious for some time from news reports that Priebus seemed to be on thin ice [More]

Stunned by the surprise rejection of a bare bones Senate health care bill, Republicans in the House vowed on Friday to keep pressing for action on legislation to overhaul the Obama health law, urging Senate leaders not to give up, but still struggling to figure out the magic formula on a bill that can gain a majority in both houses of Congress.

“I am disappointed and frustrated, but we should not give up,” Speaker Paul Ryan said in a written statement issued after what was described as a somber closed door meeting with House Republicans, just hours after the Senate had [More]

Republican plans to approve a slimmed down bill to overhaul the Obama health law abruptly ran aground early on Friday morning in the U.S. Senate, as Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) refused to support a last minute “skinny” GOP bill, forcing Republican leaders back to the drawing board in their quest to get a bill to the President’s desk to rewire America’s health care system.

“I thought it was the right vote,” McCain told reporters as he left the Senate floor. Outside, there were cheers as the Arizona Senator – who has bedeviled members of both parties through his years – [More]

In an overwhelming vote of 98-2, the U.S. Senate on Thursday sent President Donald Trump a bipartisan bill that places new economic sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, as members of both parties joined to send a message not only to those three regimes, but also the the White House, on the subject of U.S.-Russian relations and the 2016 campaign.

“We will not tolerate attacks on our democracy. That’s what this bill is all about,” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) declared on the Senate floor, as Senators in both parties directly linked Russian interference in last year’s elections to this [More]

Following through on a prime 2016 campaign pledge from President Donald Trump, the House on Thursday approved a $1.6 billion down payment to start building a new border barriers in Texas and California, adding that money to a broader $788 billion package containing four of the twelve bills that fund operations for the federal government in 2018.

“The best thing we could do as a good neighbor to Mexico, is to build a wall where it is needed, as President Trump has talked about,” said Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX).